Passenger car registrations: +9.3% in 2015; +16.6% in December

Brussels, 15 January 2016 – In December 2015, the EU passenger car market posted a very strong uplift (+16.6%), amounting to 1,109,927 units and marking the 28th consecutive month of growth.

In December 2015, the EU passenger car market posted a very strong uplift (+16.6%), amounting to 1,109,927 units and marking the 28th consecutive month of growth. This is the highest percentage increase since the beginning of this positive trend. All major passenger car markets ended 2015 strongly, contributing significantly to the full-year positive result. Spain (+20.7%), Italy (+18.7%) and France (+12.5%) posted double-digit percentage gains during the month, followed by the UK (+8.4%) and Germany (+7.7%), which also performed better than in December 2014.

In 2015, new passenger car registrations significantly increased (+9.3%), totalling 13,713,526 units. Nevertheless, this result is only now passing levels registered in 2010, immediately after the economic crisis. In other words, the trend is positive but, in absolute terms, volumes remain low. Looking at the five EU major markets, Spain (+20.9%) and Italy (+15.8%) had the strongest growth in demand during the year, followed by France (+6.8%), the UK (+6.3%) and Germany (+5.6%), which posted a robust performance in 2015.